Easter Exchange!
by DragonLover4Life
Summary: A little tumblr easter exchange for the wonderful and lovely @asianmanatea 3 Hope you have a wonderful spring, my friend!


Easter Exchange for asianmanatea!

{*****}

Recently, tensions between Kouka and the Kai Empire had been at an all time high leaving the Happy Hungry Bunch on edge.

While Su-won seemed to have defenses in place with the Earth, Sky and Fire Clans, sometimes his methods allowed unnecessary blood to be shed which did not sit well with any of them. The last thing they needed was another incident like when they had tried to return Kalgan back to his parents' village and the remaining Kai soldiers had wreaked havoc on the villagers as a way of venting their rage and humiliation.

Should worse come to worse they could do their best to fight off any stray troops themselves but last time because of how far from the castle they had been, it hadn't gone well for the dragons.

Their hope was this time that they could have other supports of their own in case things went downhill faster than they could come to anyone's aid.

They had already made contact to Tae-Jun to keep an eye on any military movements within the fire Clan for them and to give word to their troops to keep track of where the enemy retreated to, should they find themselves capable.

Wind was much too far away and Water not northern enough to be much help. What they hoped was that Yona, Hak and Jae-ha could head back to Awa to check up on the port town now and see if any measures could be taken from the seas to keep Kai in check.

Meanwhile Yun and the other would head further inland and try to find any way to find any support from the earth tribe or learn if their loyalties now lay solely with Su-won. Should that be the case, they would have to tread carefully around their territory in both the present and foreseeable future while tensions are so high, and loyalties stretched thin.

The last thing they needed was another run in with Su-won and his ever-present advisor Kei-sook.

And so, with a plan decided upon, the group parted ways with promises to reunite again after a week of investigating and planning.

Upon reaching Awa, Jae-ha wasted no time in catching up with his old pirate (now fishermen again) friends, including Maya, Tatsu, Ryou and Toku.

She had to stifle a giggle at the sight of a single exasperated Jae-ha stuck in the middle of a group of crying men all giving him a big snotty group bear hug much to his disgust.

He would never admit it out loud but, Yona could see he had missed them dearly and was just as excited to see them as they were to see him.

Though, he at least did manage to not become a blubbering mess of tears and hugs unlike the rest of them.

Captain Gi-gan true to form pretended she barely noticed he was back, but everyone saw the smile that she couldn't help but let through. Even if he was still, as she put it, 'Nothing but a snot-nosed brat, through and through'.

Deciding it was best to let the boys catch up on their own, Yona gave them a heads up where she was going and make her way into town on her own to see how Yuri was faring since they'd last seen each other.

She'd only just passed the first few stalls in the market before Yuri managed to find her instead, calling out excitedly to "Lina". Smiling she made her way over and the two of them immediately caught up like old friends, eager to see how the other was fairing. According to Yuri, the town had slowly begun to recover again under the ruling of a new lord whom Su-won had put in place. This man seemed to be humbled by his new position and actually cared about the people and so did his best to treat them fairly and look after them.

This news Made Yona sigh in relief which only make Yuri giggle and says she should relax as she imagined "Lina" hadn't even stopped to sit down since she left Awa in the first place and suggests she try going for a swim down off the southern cove.

After promising to do just that, they said their goodbyes for the moment, Yona promised to visit her again soon while she was still in town before making her way back to the guys who were getting themselves some drinks back down at the docks.

And so Yona now found herself and Hak wandering down a sandy path in search of this supposed cove that Yuri had told her about. The inlet was protected from the rough open ocean and wasn't too deep, so it was nice and warm this time of year being heated by the sun all day. There were even some small pockets of reef according to her.

After having walked quite a ways the last few days to make it back to Awa in good time all through the mid summer heat, the two had decided a swim was well called for.

She'd asked Jae-ha if he'd like to join them, but he'd simply laughed and gave Hak a teasing look that he promptly ignored and told them to go on ahead while he went and found some more drinks to last him and his friends the night.

As they made it down to the cove just as evening began making the water look warm and inviting, as though It were liquid gold.

Eager to get in the water now, Yona jogged over to go change out of her dress and into a pair of plain lightweight linen shorts that Gig-gang had lent her for swim clothes. She didn't really want to wear a lot of flapping clothes in the water so instead of a top, she resigned her self to just using some chest wrappings to cover herself instead, that way it'd be easier to move around.

Hak meanwhile had simply decided to go swimming in his underclothes which worked well enough and left him with enough dry clothes to change back into when they got out.

Now changed and ready to enough the warm water she called out to Hak, "Race you to the water!" before taking off full speed across the sand before splashing and wading into the waves.

Hak simply smiled fondly and jogged after her, content to let her win for now.

Once in the water Yona is delighted to find that the salt water makes it easier to swim than it is in the freshwater lakes, river and ponds she usually bathed in. She felt like she was a light as air as she glided through the water on her back enjoying the warm pinks and oranges from the sky shining through her closed eyelids.

That was, until she felt something underneath her foot.

Now while she was used to having the mud and sand squish between her toes and water plants brush up against her legs, this was different and set her on edge.

It was oddly leathery. . . which lead to her having thoughts of massive fish with great big teeth or some scaly creature lurking below.

After gathering some courage, she decided to dunk her head under to see if she could figure out what it was. No sooner had she done this, however, did she come sputtering back up to the surface, frantically trying to wipe the water from her face and reorient herself as she took off swimming as fast as she could to where Hak was lazily swimming his back.

"Princess? What's wrong?" he asked now slightly distressed when he looked up to see her speeding towards him, a look of fear on her face.

"I-I don't know. I felt something brush under my foot a minute ago, so I ducked down to try and see what is was and there was some sort of massive sea creature!" she managed to muddle out.

He raised and eyebrow at her. Well that didn't sound good.

"Where was it? Stay here and let me try and have a look to see what it was." He said, hoping it had just been a rock of some sort that had let her imagination get the better of her.

"I was just over there." She replied, pointing vaguely over to where she had been swimming over nearer the shallows a moment before.

With that in mind, Hak ducks under the water and begins swimming over to where she had pointed to go and investigate. Once he got close enough however, he saw what it was that had brushed against her foot and couldn't help but crack a smile.

Of course, she would manage to accidentally find something that was supposed to be rare around here.

When he does surface and come back to where Yona was waiting for him, he had a huge grin on his face before explaining to her it was, she had found.

"Well I found your massive sea creature." He said with a chuckle.

"And?. . ." she asked nervously.

"And," he continued, "against all odds you managed to find one of Awa's rarest plant eaters."

She gave him a confused look, "Plant eater? Well I guess that's good that it wasn't about to bite my foot off but what was it? I've never seen anything like it before."

"It's a Dugong." He said simply.

"A what?"

He laughed a little again to himself while Yona gave him an annoyed look before he grabbed her arm to lead her back over to the animal in question.

"They're related to dolphins. Gramps told me about them when I visited Awa once as a kid. It seems that they're apparently special to Awa's shores but that they're also pretty rare, peaceful animals that just eat sea grass. Apparently, some people even call them sea cows because of it."

"Wow, really!" asked, now very intrigued with her new sea friend, even if she had managed to step on them.

Delighted at this she ducks back down and swims over at eye level with the dopey eyed creature and Hak follows suite, showing her the large sea mammal was docile and ok to pet and she quickly joins in after seeing that the animal didn't mind in the slightest.

By the end of the day, once the sun had gone down, and their new friend had swam off, they finished up their swim, dried off and changed back into the clothes before heading back to the ship together where they could already hear Jae-ha and the others roaring with laughter over something or other.

It seemed that new beginnings only strengthened long held friendships.

{*****}

Hey Rina! Hope you liked this little fic and got my sort of 'Easter egg/joke' in there. Not sure it really counts as either, but I hope it still made you smile a little.

Kinda went for Awa's 'new beginning' or resurrection and recovery since Kumji's reign of terror.

Lol, so not great but I did try. Have a wonderful Easter my friend and hope that spring has reached you wherever with loads of flowers and sunshine! 3


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